


Opportunist

by Theoroark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Medical Trauma, Panic Attacks, Paralysis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Surgery, Talon - Freeform, Team Talon (Overwatch)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 04:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12100602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: The first few weeks of Sombra's post-op were. Difficult.A short Sombra character study.





	Opportunist

Another Muerto had gotten the procedure done before, though not quite as extensively— had implants driven through her skull after a concussion left her unable to aim as well as she could before. She had told Sombra to take it easy, the first few weeks.

“You’re vulnerable, before everything synchs up,” the Muerto said. Her eyes glowed faintly green, a hint of the cybernetic optic nerve behind them. “Especially here. You can’t sneeze without getting malware in this place. And I don’t care how good your firewalls are, kid, you’re going to catch something while your system’s booting up. And it’ll hurt.”

Sombra was the best, and she had designed her implant’s firewalls herself. So she had smiled and nodded politely but left the surgeon’s table giddy and confident.

It took an hour for her to become fully paralyzed.

A Muerto had found her and taken her back to the surgeon, after his buddy had stolen her wallet. The surgeon had taken a look at her and sighed, put her on a gurney, and stuck an IV in her.

“It’ll clear up soon,” the surgeon said. “Just wait it out.”

So Sombra lay there, unable to move or speak, sometimes unable to hear or see. And she wasn’t sure if it was better or worse without her senses— because she could see it now, see it rolling back and forth across her body in waves. See it bouncing off the Omnic surgeon as they treated other patients, and bouncing over towards her. She could see it pulling back for the plunge before she felt the pain of the virus inflaming one of the thermoptic cells in her leg.

Eventually, the virus scattered, unable to gather useful information from her newborn system. The surgeon had stood her back on her feet and told her to go straight home.

“Can’t I just stay here?” she asked. Her voice quivered like it hadn’t since she was a child.

The surgeon shifted their face into a more sympathetic display. “It’s not really any safer here, Sombra. But you’re operating at 36%. That should be enough.”

“How much was I operating at when I left?”

They looked down. “2%.”

Somber could not think of anything to say to that, really, so she nodded and left and went straight to her apartment. It wasn’t home, she hadn’t had a home since the security breach. It was a hole in the wall that had been paid for with credits upfront that she had to be out of in a week. She sat on the furnished twin bed and tried to estimate how operational she would be by then. She tried to, but she could still see the shadows of viruses in the units around her. She could see them even when she closed her eyes. Every time one moved in her direction, she remembered those waves of pain, and she found herself at the edge of the bed, her head in her hands, hyperventilating, the rush of oxygen confusing her cybnertic synapses.

She had built the firewalls herself. She had a week. She would get through this.

But it had hurt so much, and she had not been able to do anything but wait.

Sombra remembered watching the third Doomfist monologue once, crowded around some holovid with the other Muertos, gawping at the destruction. He had said that pain led to growth. She had made some snarky remark at the time, about how Ogundimu was so kind to help all those soldiers grow. But she saw it now. The procedure let her see a lot of things. And one of them was the waves. She saw them break over Widowmaker, when her face would seize with some terrible grief before returning to blankness. She saw them break over Gabe, when he would shudder for a second before he dissolved.

She had grown. But then again, she always had been an opportunist.

**Author's Note:**

> Part of an informal series of fics inspired by characters' abilities- idk if I'll actually do them all, but if you want to see one, feel free to hmu at tacticalgrandma on tumblr.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would mean the world to me!


End file.
